"What the hell is this supposed to fucking be? Why do I have to go on a mission with Barbie, the money-grubbing asshole, a Sushi, a crazy puppet guy and the bitch?" Hidan's voice echoed in every hallway of the HQ. With difficulty Pain replied calmly: "Reliable sources sent us information that our HQ was found out. A group of high classed ninjas is supposed to arrive here this noon. I would appreciate it if we wouldn't have to move." Agreeing, Kakuzu nodded and added "And very expensive." Natsuki suppressed a grin. "Ok" Pain continued "Considering our all thoughts I prefer changing their memories instead of killing them." "What? What's the fucking reason for that?" Hidan interrupted. Pain ignored him completely. Instead his eyes wandered to Natsuki which had understood. So he knew about her ability to alter memories. She wondered how he was able to get so much information in so short time. "Altering their memories and sending them back to their home village will help us to keep our HQ. Killing them wouldn't change the fact that they know our whereabouts." Pain had mercy and explained for Hidan's sake the reason of his pacifistic way.
Pain certainly had a bad feeling, asking so much of Natsuki. The whole night he had searched for any other way but there was none. "How many enemies we're talking about anyway?" Kiasme asked wondering about the combination of the team. "I calculated three ninjas per one member." Pain said without emotion. "So it's 18." Sasori meant in the same way. "Almost, it's 17. I give you exactly 10 minutes. Then I want you to be already gone from the HQ for 5 minutes." Without another comment Natsuki, Kisame, Deidara, Sasori and Kakuzu disappeared. Only Hidan stayed. Pain sighed. "Indirectly I just said that you got 5 minutes to get your stuff and leave." Hidan nodded, not impressed at all. "I know. I only wondered if you assigned Natsuki one enemy less on purpose." Pain's eye flashed for a second. "Why should I assign her an enemy less? Could also be an enemy less for Sasori or Deidara." Pain replied coldly. "I know she's like a little sister to you. It wasn't easy not to overhear you yesterday night as she talked about her 'curse'." Heavily Pain hit his desk. Hidan fell silent right away as the Leader slowly got up, pushing his chair back. "Hidan, if you know how important she is to me, though you do not want to admit your own jealousy, then just do me the favor of protecting her. Stay with her and watch the Goddess. And stop eavesdropping on people!" Only as the door closed behind Hidan, Pain allowed himself to sit down sighing.
Breathing a sigh of relief Natsuki activated the last of Sasori's traps. Pain had had no information about the ninjas they were going to face in battle soon. No names, no abilities, no pictures. Being back at the meeting place they discussed their strategy. "I suggest half of us stay in the background. Though they'll be able to feel their chackras they'll not be able to recognize or identify them." Natsuki began self-confident. "The three in the foreground will try to get the enemy to display as many of their abilities as possible without exposing themselves. Only then we'll decide which ninja will be assigned to who." All Akatsukis agreed, nodding. "Deidara, Kakuzu and me will be the foreground." Sasori added right away "We already fought against Konoha-nins. While we know already some abilities of them they already know ours so we can't really expose ourselves. Besides we three possess the best wide-ranged abilities." Although being worried since she wouldn't be able to do anything, Natsuki agreed.
They didn't have to wait long. Not even ten minutes after they hid, the first traps were released. "Damn, Kiba, Naruto! The meaning of these traps wasn't death. But now they know we are here and even where!" Natsuki tried to catch sight of the enemy and leaned forward. Hidan moved a little closer to her, noticing her leaning forward. Surprised she looked at him. "What are you doing, Hidan?" she asked him whispering. "Just watching out that you don't fall off the tree and reveal our location!" Hidan replied annoyed. While talking he turned around and tried to clarify his actions with hand gesturing if he didn't swear. But he seemed to have forgotten their location because the hand gesturing had the result that his hand involuntarily touched her breast. Her cheeks turned dark red in embarrassment. Involuntary memories of his failed rape-attempt came up. Angry and at the same time scared she hit away his hand. "Hidan, what the hell are you doing?" She also seemed to have forgotten about their location and slipped off the branch she had lain on. "I didn't plan to…" Only now Hidan noticed Natsuki's missing. "Natsuki!" he yelled quietly after her.